


A New Home

by MelyndaR



Series: The Primaries [3]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, Polyamory, gaining color in your sight as you gain soulmates, soulmate quartets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 02:09:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5894053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You see in black, white, and gray until you meet your soulmates, right? But then, with every one of your soulmates you meet, you’re now able to see a primary color also.<br/>Steve and Bucky are gone, the colors that come with them blink in and out - until they suddenly disappear entirely... only to be replaced?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Home

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Colorful War](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5891881) by [MelyndaR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR). 



> This is a sequel to "A Colorful War."

_1947_

Peggy and Howard have spent years without Steve and Bucky now, and, as hard as it is, Peggy feels she’s handling it better these days. Which is saying something, given the odd predicament that she and Howard find themselves in.

Because they don’t think that Steve and Bucky are actually dead. They’re not sure what state their boys are in, exactly, just that they’re not dead. At least not completely. Because the colors that Howard and Peggy can see aren’t disappearing – at least not completely.

Being able to see blue – which came with Steve for Peggy, Howard, and Bucky all three – flickers out sometimes, leaving them in terrible, anticipatory agony until it comes back. The longest blue’s ever been gone is twelve hours, three minutes, and seventeen seconds – Howard timed it. They don’t know what it means, just that if, like with any soulmates, they stop seeing blue and it doesn’t return, they have to assume that Steve is actually dead.

Red, which Howard and Peggy see thanks to Bucky, acts the opposite of Steve, and somehow that’s even worse. Red isn’t there more often than it is. Bucky – somehow – is closer to dead than alive most of the time, and they don’t understand how. Sometimes Peggy and Howard can see red for two whole weeks; one time they lost the ability for four and half years straight.

But life goes on. It must. Peggy and Howard keep in touch – daily conversations no matter how ridiculous a mood he’s in, at least weekly lunches if for no other reason than to make sure the other eats properly every once in awhile. It’s not bad, just the two of them. Here in LA, they’re even living in the same house as Ana and Jarvis – they’re not married, of course, she’s just decided to take on his last name – who have yet to meet their other two soulmates. They’re two couples living together, and it’s nice. It’s not as good as it once was, Peggy thinks, back when she was part of a complete quartet, but it’s not bad.

Until the day Peggy wakes up in the earliest hours of the morning to a world without even yellow in it.

There’s a streetlamp on the other side of the yard outside Peggy’s window, and even in the worst moments – even if blue and red were both gone at the moment – she should be able to see that streetlamp in color. She bolts upright and out of bed, heedless of the way she’s cried out Howard’s name in terror as she flies through the house and into his bedroom.

_If she can’t see yellow, than what if he’s dead?_

“Dear God, please, not you too,” she begs, already near tears as she comes to the threshold of his bedroom. The door’s open, and he’s sitting up, looking at her, uncomprehendingly sleepy and disgruntled. “Oh, thank God,” she breathes, drawing in a shuddering breath.

“What’s wrong, Peg? Geez,” Howard mutters, the complaint at being woken up plain in his tone. Then he squints at her, rubbing at his eyes some more before he adds, “And why can I see red, but not yellow? You gave me yellow, you’re standing right there, and I can’t see yellow, but I can see red.”

Peggy takes a deep breath, calming herself as she looks back up at him, only to realize, “I could ask you the same thing.”

Zany Howard Stark had always given yellow – to Steve, Peggy, and Bucky, all three – but now Peggy looks around and sees only red, no yellow, in her field of vision.

“Are we getting new soulmates, maybe?” Howard mutters, at the same time as Peggy breathes the horrid thought, “Does that mean Steve and Bucky are officially dead?”

Howard shrugs helplessly, opening his mouth to answer, but before he can reply, Jarvis and Ana all but skid into the room, Jarvis declaring, “We heard shouting,” and Ana demanding, “Is everything alright?”

And even in the darkened room, Peggy can tell she’s suddenly seeing in color again.

 _Howard has asked the right question,_ Peggy realizes a little faintly. She and – she assumes, given Howard’s sudden litany of curses – him have just gotten new soulmates… in the Jarvises. Mr. Jarvis, he spoke first, and blue had come to her in the stripes of the butler’s nightclothes. Then Ana had, and Peggy was able to see yellow again, in the comforter on Howard’s bed.

Perhaps most tellingly was the reaction of the Jarvises themselves. Ana had told Peggy once that meting Mr. Jarvis had given her blue. But now, as Howard flips on his bedside lamp and swings his legs out of bed, she steps over to a mirror, touching her own _red_ hair as she glances at Peggy and back. Then she looks to the yellow walls as if they’re the most beautiful color she’s ever seen.  Peggy automatically assumes that her seeing yellow is Howard’s fault.

Mr. Jarvis, however, has seen yellow, thanks to Ana, for years. Now, though, he seems to be – judging by where his gaze is shooting – blaming Howard for seeing red, and Peggy for blue. _Hm; that was a new one for her._

Ultimately, it was the butler who had the presence of mind to demand, clearly startled, “What is going on?”

Howard snorts, declaring, “I’m sure I have no idea.”

“Your vision changed too, then?” Ana asks Howard and Peggy as she looks between them, her voice small, like she was afraid of losing a dream come true.

 _Because she was,_ Peggy realizes with a sudden slash of sympathy. _She and Edwin had been waiting for their other two soulmates for what she knew seemed like so long_. She finds herself smiling at Ana as she answers, “Yes.”

“Sure did, sweetheart,” Howard intones, and everyone in the room recognizes the flirtatious tone that he’s directed at Ana – not for the first time, Peggy’s honestly willing to bet.

The redhead smiles then at him and Peggy, then Edwin. “Good. Very good.”

She’s excited, trembling with suppressed emotions, Peggy suspects, but there’s also a hint of awkwardness hanging in the air, at least between the two servants as they glance almost suspiciously at Howard. Peggy can practically _hear_ them trying to puzzle out how they’re all supposed to make this transition into being one another’s soulmates.

Then Edwin glances at _her_ , and she remembers all the quiet, still conversations they’ve had when she was openly grieving over the situation with Steve and Bucky. She winces, wondering how she’s supposed to go about telling the butler that soulmate or not, even in the midst of all of that, she already knew she was starting to fall for _him_ too. She can imagine the confession now – clunky-sounding, as if spurred _only_ by their suddenly changed circumstances, and not going over well at all.

Then Howard takes Ana’s hand and draws her to the edge of the bed, declaring, “You know, I’ve always thought you were beautiful.”

And Howard, in this case because he’s Howard, they believe.

Peggy leaps at the segue, her own fingertips brushing hesitantly at Edwin’s elbow to get his attention as she says, nearly in a whisper, “You do know that I love you, right?”

He smiles at her then, like the reserved British version of the sun personified, and answers simply, “I’d hoped.”

No, it wasn’t going to be like when Peggy and Howard had Steve and Bucky, she could tell that already, but this – she looked over to where Howard was gently drawing Ana closer to him, felt Edwin slide his own arm timidly around her waist – this was going to be wonderful too.


End file.
